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South Korea's Ayodhya connection

AYODHYA: Korea's ties with Ayodhya can be traced back to the middle of the first century AD.

| TNN | Sep 12, 2004, 00:30 IST

AYODHYA: What''s South Korea''s Ayodhya connection? To get the answer, pay a visit to the picturesque banks of river Saryu in the holy city. Here one will find a monument in memory of an Ayodhya princess who is believed to have ''mothered'' a dynasty in South Korea.

It has been an affair that resurfaced after a lapse of almost 2000 years in the year 2001. Mayors of Ayodhya and Kim-Hae city in South Korea had signed a Sister City Bond in March 2001.

The origin of the historical ties can be traced back to the middle of the first century AD. According to Sam Kuk Yusa, the ancient history of Korea, Queen Huh, wife of legendary King Suro, who founded the Karak Kingdom, was born in Ayodhya.

Queen Huh was a princess of the kingdom. Her father, the king of Ayodhya, on receiving a divine revelation, sent her on a long sea voyage to the Karak kingdom in southern Korea to marry King Suro, states the lines inscribed on the plaque at the monument in Ayodhya.

The monument in memory of Hwang Huh is built in Korean tradition using a three-metre high stone weighing 7,500 kg, specially shipped from South Korea.

The clan that descended from the Ayodhya princess Huh and South Korean King Suros, today known as Kim-Hae-Kim clan, has a little over six million Huh descendants in the Republic of South Korea.

The Kim-Hae-Kim clan has countless illustrious members including many presidents and premiers.

The memorial site in Ayodhya has become a place of pilgrimage for members of the clan.

While unveiling the monument Bong Ho-Kim, president of the clan society, Republic of Korea had said: "Ayodhya being birthplace of our great Queen Huh, has acquired the status of a place for pilgrimage to over six million descendants."

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